A Magic Beyond
by yelhsamelissa
Summary: The Wizarding War is over and all Nora wants to do is escape. She lost her big sister and nearly herself. Why can't the stupid public leave her alone? It seems to her that the only way to get some peace is to hide in the muggle world, oh, and being in another country is sure to help too. Please, Aunt Andy, remind her why she has to go to high school though? Fem!Harry
1. The End of a War

_**Hey, so here's one of the stories that I have been working on. I just suddenly felt like writing this one a few days ago and now I'm on chapter five, I'm not entirely sure where it all came from to be honest. It's my safety blanket crossed over with Glee, obviously, and I hope you all enjoy**_

 _ **I do have to warn you though that for this story quite a bit of HP-canon has been altered, so if you are confused and want to find out more about that then just ask me. I will be putting that all up as just a Harry Potter story at some point, I just need to get around to writing it**_

 _ **I have never written any Glee fanfiction before and I haven't actually watched it in a while (I'm changing that right now though!) so my characterisation will probably be off, I'm warning you. I hope it isn't too bad and that you won't all hate me too much for that... They only start to appear around chapter three though, so you never know, I may have a beta by then who can help me point out when it gets too bad and put them back on track, maybe. I'll think about it.**_

 _ **Oh! I do not own Harry Potter, Glee or any songs that may pop up! There's your disclaimer that I so nearly forgot!**_

 _ **Hope you all enjoy it and let's kick things off...**_

* * *

 **20 August, 2010;**

 **England:**

It had been three weeks since the war had ended and Nora was feeling trapped.

She had been walking around the Tonks' house like a ghost, simply going through all of the motions and she needed to get out!

Everywhere she looked there seemed to be a reminder of what had happened – of what they had lost to that snake-faced bastard. The living room was where Uncle Ted showed her the brilliant world that was comic books; where she often cuddled up to her uncle while they watched a movie that her Aunt Andy or older sister normally only humoured him for. The back garden was where she would play with her 'dogfather' in his dog form, just so that he could have that bit of freedom. Even her own bedroom was haunted, echoes of days spent with the girl who had become her older sister over the years. If she closed her eyes then she swore that she could still hear Dora's familiar laugh bouncing around the room once more.

It was all haunted and she did not know how to escape it! She knew it was just as bad for her Aunt Andy as well; it was why she always made sure to keep her hair the natural black while her aunt was around. She did not want to be one big reminder of the woman's real daughter who often changed her own hair to bright colours.

With a sigh Nora dragged her eyes away from the photos the lined the wall – each one a punch to the gut as the occupants smiled and laughed away to themselves, unaware that half of them were currently dead. She had to stop this! She had to get away from here…

Nora's eyes widened as she fastened onto that thought – get away. Would it really be that simple? Could she even manage that?

Moving quicker than she had in a while Nora headed up the stairs and to her room – she pushed past the memories that always came up, grabbed a notebook and pen from her desk and then jumped on her bed.

With a flick of her hand she had the notebook open and had started to write down a list of what getting away would require.

 _-Away from magic – muggle world then._  
 _-UK, too many reminders. Too close._  
 _-English speaking would be best – French is not the best still, too close anyway._  
 _-America? YES!_  
 _-Somewhere quiet? Not a city._  
 _-Problem – AGE! Have to start Muggle School again?_  
 _-Problem – GUARDIANSHIP! Possibly get AA to sign something? Emancipate?_  
 _-Need muggle papers – get the goblins to forge some school records and such?_  
 _-What to tell people..._

Nora nibbled on the end of her pen as she frowned at the page, surely Aunt Andy would agree in the end – it would make so many things easier on the two of them.

Standing up from her bed with the notebook in hand, she decided it would probably be best to get Aunt Andy in on the plan before plotting her escape any further.

With that decided Nora headed downstairs to where she could hear Aunt Andy moving around the kitchen.

"Aunt Andy?" she called when she reached the room, standing awkwardly in the doorframe in a way that she hadn't since that very first summer at the Tonks' house.

"Yes, Eleanor?" the older black-haired woman turned around to face her adopted daughter.

Nora barely suppressed the wince at being called by her real first name – she did not like being called it but Aunt Andy had hardly called her 'Nora' since the war had ended, since Dora had-

She shook her head slightly to clear those thoughts, making herself focus on the here and now.

"I want to get away," she said simply as she placed her notebook down on the counter between them, her eyes downcast and shoulders slumped. She paused for a moment but when her aunt did not reply she carried on, twisting her hands together as she tried to explain. "I want to leave here for a bit, get away from things. I mean- it's not that I want to leave you, I don't! I just- It's here. All of it, it's too much. And I don't think I can go back to Hogwarts. I want to escape for a bit, be normal." Nora peeked up at her guardian from under her fringe, trying to see how she was going to take it.

Andromeda's eyes softened slightly as the young girl rambled on, she reached one hand out to stop her fidgeting hands, the other going to Nora's chin to make her look up at her.

"I can understand, sweetie," she whispered. She did not want to lose her adopted daughter as well but she really could understand the young girls need to get away, especially since all the rest of the wizarding world seemed to want to badger her and know what she was doing twenty-four seven. How could she be expected to try to carry on with her life and learn to deal with the loses when people would not leave her alone? Yes, Andromeda had definitely seen something like this coming; she only wished that it would not.

"You can?" Nora asked quietly, her eyes wide. Even at sixteen, right then she reminded Andromeda so much of the lost little eleven year old that she had first met, a little girl only looking for some reassurance.

"Of course I can," Andromeda murmured, offering her a small, sad smile. "Now, tell me what you have thought of so far."

Nora quickly picked up her notebook and grabbed her Aunt Andy's hand, dragging the taller woman over to the kitchen table and taking a seat.

"I don't have much yet, I thought it was best if I got your help first," she said, letting Andromeda sit down before she pushed the now open notebook towards her. "It's only a couple of points, I'm sure that there's more to do, but... that's all I have."

She watched, nibbling on her bottom lip, as Aunt Andy read through her meagre amount of notes.

"The muggle world would be best, you're right there," Andromeda murmured as she read through it, barely holding in a snort after a couple of lines, "Definitely nowhere French for you, I can still remember those nightmare lessons."

"I wasn't that bad," Nora muttered, though her aunt just ignored her.

"As much as I hate to think of you that far away, somewhere in America would work the finest for you. Actually… I think, if I am remembering right, then you should own some property over there. I can remember cousin Sirius mentioning it when we were discussing your finances. One was a house in New York and I believe he was talking about passing on a small apartment somewhere in Ohio to you, I can't remember exactly where; we would have to ask the goblins."

Nora looked up at her with big eyes, her hair slowly gaining more of a purple tint as she started to get excited. "You would really let me go that far away?"

"If this is what it takes to give you time to heal, then I can live with it," Andromeda slowly nodded, "But I want you to call on the mirrors at least every two days and if you ever need me then I am right here, okay?"

"Okay," she nodded, trying not to think of the last time that she had called her on the mirrors. "When can we go see the goblins?" Nora asked, hoping to get everything sorted out quickly.

"I suppose, since you will probably end up going to a muggle school then we should get it sorted for the new school year," Andromeda said after a moment's thought, "We can go this afternoon, so long as Teddy is settled."

Later the same day that is exactly what they did – they packed a bag for Teddy and then they were off through the floo.

As soon as the occupants of the Leaky Cauldron (where they arrived through the floo) realised just who had entered, they all fell silent and stared at her.

With a feeling of dread settling in her stomach, Nora had a flash back of the first time she had entered this same pub when she was eleven.

She was extremely glad that she had Aunt Andy with her this time around – the former Black managed to get them out of there quick enough that they did not even manage to disturb Teddy. Aunt Andy had super powers, she was sure of it – well, she had joked about that enough with Uncle Ted anyway.

Finally the small family found themselves at Gringotts and Nora had never been happier to see the marble walls – at least within the bank she would not get openly stared at as much.

Nora followed behind her guardian, keeping her head down and her hair a normal colour in an attempt to not be spotted by any nosy witches or wizards. It would be safe to say that she failed – she was sure that people had spells in place specifically to spot her; she was not just being paranoid!

The family of three (it should have been bigger than that!) quietly waited in line until a goblin was free – it seemed that the little creatures were being kept busy by wizards trying to get back to normal and rebuild.

Finally they stepped up to a free counter and Nora stole her adorable godson (she had most definitely put him in a teddy bear onesie again) from his grandmother so that the woman could deal with the goblin.

It did not take them as long as she thought it would to end up sat in a goblins office, apparently Ripshaw was only in charge of the Potter, Black, and Tonks accounts though, so he had not had much to do. She really should have paid more attention when Aunt Andy and Sirius were trying to talk her through her accounts.

"Mrs Tonks, Miss Potter, to what do I owe this visit?" the goblin began as soon as the two witches had sat down.

Nora knew better than to try to ask the goblin for help herself, she was smart enough to realise that she would just make a mess of everything and so left the talking to Aunt Andy for now. She was fine holding Teddy.

"I am sure you are aware of the attention that Eleanor has on her lately," the goblin nodded and so Andromeda carried on talking straight away, "the problem, however, is that it is not giving her a chance to deal with everything that has happened to her over the years. As such, she wishes to get away for a while and I am in support of this idea. We were hoping that you could help with setting up some paperwork for her within the muggle world and checking to see what properties are owned, between the two of us, in America."

"I believe that can be done. Will it just be Miss Potter who shall be leaving, or will you and the young one be keeping her company?" the goblin asked as he started to pull out some paperwork.

"Just Eleanor, so something needs to be set up for her attending a school and living by herself." Andromeda more than knew that Nora could look after herself fine, but she was still a bit worried about her living on her own.

"You will want security wherever she decides to live then, I assume," Ripshaw said, almost absentmindedly as he pulled out property lists. "You have three options then, Miss Potter, unless you are thinking of buying something new."

He passed the list over to Andromeda who glanced through before holding them out for Nora to see.

"As you can see, between the three family accounts you have access to a four bedroom house in Brooklyn, New York, a single bedroom apartment in Lima, Ohio, and a three bedroom house in San Francisco which I believe needs a bit of work done on it."

"Can we see about getting the one in San Francisco fixed up? Not that I want to move there, I think the apartment sounds better at the moment." Nora said after a moment's thought. She positioned Teddy so that she was holding him with one arm before reaching out to pull out some pictures along with a floor plan of the apartment. "Would it be possible to knock in some of the walls though and making it one large room and a bathroom? I think it would be perfect if it was just more... open."

Ripshaw nodded slightly as he summoned the files back to his desk, "I am sure that we can arrange for that to happen. Is there a date that you would like to be moving over?"

"As soon as I can, I want to be there for starting school," Nora said with a quick glance over to Andromeda.

Her aunt flashed a reassuring smile at her before turning to Ripshaw, "Eleanor will need to be set up to start at a local school too, but obviously she has not had a formal education in the muggle world for a while. Now, I do not want her too far away from people her own age, but would it be possible to have her set to enter the year below she normally would?"

"We can arrange for that," the goblin answered without even a moment's pause.

Her aunt definitely knew how to get a goblin working how she wanted.

Nora watched as her guardian and the goblin went back and forth, only occasionally adding into the arrangements but otherwise it was like she was not needed.

Teddy woke up about half an hour into the meeting, so Nora at least had something to keep her occupied. She was so glad that the little Metamorphmagus was such a good baby (she was sure that made Aunt Andy happy too), all she had to do to keep him fairly quiet was cycle her hair through different colours. Teddy loved his colours it seemed.

She kissed his nose as she turned her hair blue to match the colour that he was normally settled on.

"Nora?"

She looked up in surprise when she heard her name, her hair automatically jumping to purple.

Her aunt looked slightly amused as she nodded her head towards the door, obviously that was not the first time her name had been called.

"We're finished here for now, Ripshaw is arranging for your paperwork and to have someone sent to the apartment to alter it as you wished."

"Right, leaving," Nora blushed slightly as she stood up, quickly following her aunt to the door. She turned around as she reached it and flashed a smile to Ripshaw, "Thanks for the help today, Ripshaw!" she said before she followed her aunt out.

Andromeda settled some paperwork into her bag before she took Teddy from Nora.

"Ripshaw assured me that we should have you ready to move within four days so is there anything else you might need within the alley before we head home? I have some furniture magazines at home that you can look through for decorating ideas."

Nora thought about it for a moment, her hands automatically starting to fidget as she nods her head. "There is something, yeah. Before the war kicked off fully D- we promised that I would another piercing done at some point, so I want to get that done the magical way while I can. And… there's something else that I've wanted to do as well and that can't be done in the muggle world. I may need your permission though."

"Nora, dear, you're rambling again," Aunt Andy said, her amused smile causing Nora to blush once more. "Why don't we head to get your piercing done – and I really hope that this will be the last one – and you can tell me what else you want to do."

Nora nodded her head before she led her aunt out of Gringotts and to one of the alleys that leads off from Diagon Alley.

"Actu Alley, it has been a while since I have been down here," Andromeda mused as she followed her adopted daughter.

The two came to a stop outside a small shop labelled 'Instant Ink', "This is where I came last time and, well, while I was here it gave me an idea that has only grown since. I wanted something to honour my parents originally but I've had a better idea since. I know you may not exactly approve, but it would mean a lot to me…" Nora trailed off once she had realised that she was starting to ramble again.

"You want a tattoo, don't you?" Andromeda said after a minute of silence. She watched as Nora slowly nodded her head before humming. "If you are one hundred percent sure and it is not too large, then I will agree. I want to see it first though."

Nora's head shot up to look at the older woman, her face clearly showing how shocked her aunt's answer had her. "You're the best!" she grinned before pulling Andromeda into the shop.

Nora walked straight up to the counter and rang the bell there while her Aunt looked over the various pictures on the walls. She only had to wait a minute before a familiar face appeared from the back and she was extremely glad that it was a familiar face. She was not sure what she would have done if it was someone that she did not know and they treated her like… well, the girl-who-lived.

"Nora! Good to see you again! What will it be?"

That was what she loved about Peter, he treated everyone the same and always got straight to work.

"I'm wanting those last piercings done of course, Pete!" she grinned up at him as she tucked her hair behind her left ear and flicked where she wanted pierced.

"We agreed three in a row, right? Helix piercings, if I'm remembering right." He hummed as he leant on the counter.

"Don't you always?"

"Only for my best girls," he replied straight away, a cheeky grin on his face.

"Every girl that walks in then," she returned without a pause.

"Nora, you wound me!" Peter gasped, placing a hand over his heart.

The two laughed for a moment before his expression sobered and he straightened up, "I was sorry to hear about Tonks, she was always a laugh."

Nora nodded her head slightly in agreement (her sister was certainly that) as she looked down at the counter, "That kind of brings me to the second thing that I'm after actually…"

Peter adopted a slightly amused smile once more, easily figuring out that she does not yet want to talk about Dora Tonks and accepting the slight change of subject. "This wouldn't have anything to do with you eyeing up my drawings last time you were here, would it?"

"Maybe?" Nora said, both of them knowing that was exactly it.

"I see you have your adult with you, so what will it be, short-stuff?"

"I'm not short," she answered automatically, before quickly adding on, "Do you have any spare parchment?"

Pete passed her a piece of parchment from under the counter; curious on what she is going to do. Of course he completely ignores her denying her height. Nora was short and everyone knew it.

Nora flicked her wand into her hand from the invisible holster on her arm as she pulled the parchment closer to her. She placed the tip of her wand so that it was hovering right above the paper as she concentrated on exactly what she wanted. Her tongue poked out between her lips slightly as he eyebrows furrowed, what she was attempting was a hard method but it would be worth it.

Dean Thomas had taught her in fourth year and it had always taken all of her concentration. The idea was that if you had your wand a certain distance from the parchment and traced it along the area that you wanted your drawing while focusing completely on exactly what you want drawn then your magic would work with you and place it on the parchment. It was only temporary though, which was why most people never bothered to learn – too much effort for something that would vanish. Dean of course just wanted to learn anything and everything that had to do with his art and Nora had needed a distraction.

Peter watched as the small sixteen-year old focused her whole attention on what she was doing, her wand leaving behind sparks of magic and slow forming lines of ink. He would admit that he was not expecting her to do that.

It took her just over five minutes before she had the idea down of what she wanted and when she did she pulled her wand away with a pleased smile before she pushed the parchment back over to Pete.

"Think you can do it?" she asked as she fiddled with her wand.

Peter looked over the drawing and slowly nodded his head – it was rather beautiful, he would admit. "Of course I can, short-stuff."

He glanced up to see Andromeda wandering over, looking curious. He nudged the parchment over, "What d'ya think? She got permission for this?"

Andromeda looked over the image of a lily done in bubble-gum pink and black, the words 'Aug 2010' swirling around the outside, before a sad smile appeared on her face.

"I think it's lovely, Nora. You can have it done."

Nora let out a relieved breath before she nodded to Pete. "Let's get this all done then."

One of the things that Nora truly loved about magic was how much easier it made things, with the use of magic tattoos could be done quickly, painlessly, and without all of the after-care. It was much the same for piercings too, hence why she was able to walk out of Pete's shop half an hour later with three new piercings done and a bandage on her left shoulder blade that she would only need to keep covered for another hour.

Yes, magic certainly was an amazing tool.

* * *

 _ **So, that's chapter one. I've got a few more written out and waiting to be posted, so expect another within a week. I am trying to stay about three chapters ahead of you all though. Glee characters, as I said, only start to appear around chapter three, so let Nora have a chance to get into the country first!**_

 _ **I'm looking forward to your thoughts so far, if you have any!**_

 _ **I will ask though, if you have any song recommendations that you would like Nora and the glee club to sing, then send them to me! That's one thing that I struggle with, settling on songs! I'm currently trying to pick a song for Nora and somebody to sing in the glee episode 'Duets', so hint-hint!**_

 _ **Hope you all enjoyed it!**_


	2. Home Sweet Home

**24 August, 2010;**

 **England:**

Only four days after Nora had brought up the idea of moving away to her Aunt Andy and she was all packed up and getting her last cuddles from her Teddy-bear. She was excited to get to see another country but she was really going to miss her Teddy-cuddles.

Aunt Andy on the other hand seemed like she was starting to regret agreeing to let her adopted daughter go and was channelling all of it into fussing over the girl instead. Poor Nora was close to sacrificing Teddy to the fussing and escaping while she still could.

Three days ago she had spent the day looking through magazines, browsing online, and buying some (or all) of her furniture. Two days ago she started to say her goodbyes to those that mattered. Yesterday she spent the day packing up her room and now she was ready to leave – she had a seat on a plane booked and waiting for her and everything, since they had decided that since this would be the start of her living 'muggle' she may as well arrive via muggle transportation as well (even if Aunt Andy had given her an emergency Portkey 'just in case' because she does not quite trust the, what she called, 'muggle tin can')

"Make sure you keep your hair the same whenever you are out and about. And feed yourself – that means no cookies for breakfast, dinner, and tea!" Andromeda was saying as they carried Nora's suitcases outside to wait for the taxi, having set Teddy down in his playpen after his cuddles. She may have cheated the weight allowance for baggage by shrinking and putting feather-light charms on items (and furniture!) but no one needed to know that.

"Are you even listening to me?" Aunt Andy asked once they had reached the curb outside and set the cases down.

"Of course," Nora said, a cheeky smile slipping onto her face, "You said cookies. Does that mean you baked some for me?"

"Nora…"

"Alright, I was listening," Nora said quickly, before her aunt could get too annoyed at her. Her Aunt Andy may have a sense of humour but even Nora knew not to push it when the older woman was worried. "You need to stop worrying so much, I'm going to call at least every two nights. I'll be fine and I bet you'll be begging me to leave you alone after two weeks," Nora tried to joke.

"I will," Andy pulled her adopted daughter into a hug, she had learned over the years to recognise when her youngest was covering her own insecurities with jokes and Merlin help her; she was going to protect that little girl where she could, if that meant reassuring her every now and then, then Andromeda would do just that. She'd had to accept that Dora had grown up from the little girl with two missing front teeth and rainbow hair, but Nora would always be that too small, wide-eyed elven year old that she had first met. "If you ever need to talk then I'm expecting you to just call me. I will not care what time of day it is, if you need me then I'm here." She whispered against Nora's dark purple hair – of course she would settle on purple when she was expected to always keep her hair the same.

"Okay," Nora whispered back before she pulled away from the hug. She could see her taxi pulling up so it was time to leave. "I'll call you when I get to the apartment, okay?"

"Okay, do not forget," Aunt Andy told her as she picked up one of the suitcases and handed it over to the driver to put in the taxi, Nora passed the other over after. "Remember that Gringotts has organised for someone to meet you at the apartment, to talk you through the security and all of that."

"Right," Nora pulled her aunt into one last hug, murmuring "love you" into her shoulder. Nora had never been the best at saying those words out loud, something that her aunt knew. "Give Teddy extra kisses from his favourite aunt for me?"

Andromeda smiled at that, "You're his only aunt, dear."

"Still his favourite though," Nora replied as her aunt pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"Get going then, you don't want to miss your flight,"

With that Nora climbed into the taxi and confirmed where she wanted to go, all while wiping her eyes from the few tears that had escaped. She may know that leaving was currently the best thing for her but she was still going to miss her aunt and little Teddy.

 **24 August, 2010;**

 **Ohio:**

Nora normally loved flying but she could safely say that she preferred to do it from the safety of her broom. At least with her broom she did not have to put up with airports and multiple other passengers – she was in control and it was just her and the sky.

You could safely say then, that by the time she had caught a taxi to her new apartment, she was not in the best of moods.

It was too bad for her that she would have to deal with some Gringotts employee talking her through the wards that they would be putting up and probably patronizing her at the same time. Was she not just the luckiest girl?

Holding in a sigh, Nora climbed out of the taxi once it had pulled up to a building that she recognised from pictures. She flashed the driver a smile when he set her cases down on the pavement and only fumbled slightly with the different currency when she paid him – if she could get used to wizards gold then she was sure that dollars would not be too hard of a change from pounds.

"Thanks," she said before grabbing her two suitcases and heading inside. She knew that the Gringotts employee would be waiting upstairs where her apartment was. Oh joy.

Nora was extremely glad that she had used some weight-altering charms on her suitcases when it came to the stairs; she doubted her ability to carry them all the way to the top otherwise. At least the building only had four floors though, even if she was right at the top of those four.

She was too busy focusing on her cases to notice him straight away, so there went the constant vigilance that Mad-Eye always went on about. That would be why when she heard her name being called she nearly ended up falling back down the stairs again.

"Nora! Careful," a familiar voice said as someone grabbed hold of her to stop her from falling.

"Bill?" Nora asked once she was safely away from the stairs and had gotten a good look at who had stopped her from falling. "What're you doing here?" She glanced around; half expecting other Weasley's to pop out of nowhere.

"Working, of course. Did you really think I'd let little Nora skip off to a whole other country without volunteering my excellent warding skills?"

"That isn't your job though, Billy," Nora said, pulling out the nickname as she usually did just to bug him.

"I volunteered; we want you safe,"

She nodded, she could understand that, "Fair enough. Have you been inside yet?" She could accept working with Bill, at least she knew him.

"Yeah, it's looking good, if a bit empty."

"Well, I'll be changing that, of course," Nora told him as they headed towards her new front door, she could not help but grin at the red paint. "Aunt Andy and I shrunk down most of my new furniture, now I was resigned to getting it all into place by myself but I guess you can help, since you volunteered."

Bill shot her an amused glance as he pushed the door open, "Yeah, yeah, I'll help."

Nora grinned at him before heading inside her apartment, her suitcases being left next to the door. She was extremely relieved to see that the work had been done exactly how she had wanted it, right down to the colour of the kitchen work tops – black bases with red counter tops, all to match the light red ceiling and grey walls. She had set her mind on a colour scheme and she was going to stick to it! It had been a tossup between red and purple, admittedly, but in the end her house pride had won out from her favourite colour. She was more used to her house colours from Hogwarts covering her sleeping area, it made it feel like home for her and the sooner the little apartment felt like home too, the better.

She turned to face Bill and pointed to the door that he was stood in front of, "Bathroom?"

"Yeah, don't worry that matches what you wanted too, I checked."

"Can I check too or are you standing there all day?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

"I may have put your present from the family and your aunt in there for now, so later,"

She looked at him for a moment before shrugging, "Fine. I want to start putting the furniture up anyway, it's too empty and as comfy as the floor is, I would like my bed tonight."

She headed over to her suitcases and lay the slightly bigger one down before she unzipped it. Everything was exactly how she had organised it that morning; such were the joys of magic.

She stared at the array of tiny furniture for a moment before pulling out three tiny two-door wardrobes, two of them with black doors while the other was red. She set them on the ground before she pulled out a folded piece of paper that had all of her doodled plans. "'M not sure why I hid that under there," she muttered to herself before shaking her head.

"This is around about how everything should go, think we can manage that?" she told Bill as she held the paper up for him to see.

"Of course," he said after taking the paper and glancing over it, his eyes scanning the room after to help picture it. He had seen the original apartment plans and he had to admit that he preferred Nora's plans for it.

Nora grinned at him before she started to pull out some more shrunken pieces of furniture - three black two sided bookcases that she planned to use as room dividers, she honestly loved that fact that she could see through them but they would still offer her that little bit of privacy for her make-shift bedroom.

A black dining room table that she would probably only ever use if her aunt came to visit, six black and white chairs to go around it, came next followed by eight more wooden bar stools to go around the kitchen island - why she needed eight Nora was not sure, but her aunt had insisted. A box that contained all of her kitchen appliances, such as her precious coffee maker, went down next to the table, another holding her other electronics on top of it.

Nora placed a black two-seater sofa that at normal size could probably fit three next to the black sleeper sofa, a dark red loveseat quickly following them, she knew that they would all be organised in the room together so it made sense to keep them together for now. She really was not sure why her aunt had insisted on so many seating options, but they looked nice so Nora had not argued.

She pulled a few shelving units out of her suitcase next, some of them waiting to be mounted on wall while others would stay stood up, a stand-up mirror quickly followed them, then her bedframe, a mattress, and various other boxes that held other items and knickknacks.

Bill watched her the whole time that she was pulling items out, his eyebrows slowly climbing up, "You look like you're decorating a dollhouse, Nora," he oh-so-helpfully informed her.

Nora, the grown up that she is, simply stuck her tongue out at him and flicked her wand into her hand.

"Just for that, you get to do all of the heavy lifting."

"You were going to make me do it anyway. I've seen you, Hermione, and Ginny gang up on the boys, I know how this works by now."

Nora simply shrugged at that, not taking any offence at what she knew to be true, "At least now we can say it was your own fault. Think you can follow all of these instructions," she pointed to the piece of paper that he was still holding, "while I set up all of my electronics, because, no offence to you, but between your dad and younger siblings, I do not trust a Weasley with my electrics anymore."

It was enough work getting magic not to interfere with them without having to protect them from Weasley's too.

Bill looked like he was about to object to that before he really thought about it and silently agreed with her. He had heard the horror stories about his family getting their hands on Nora's electronics.

"I can do that, as long as you pay me in coffee later,"

Nora simply grinned, "I knew there was a reason you were my favourite Weasley!"

"I am definitely going to tell the others that you said that."

Nora simply chuckled as she lifted up the boxes that contained her electronics, "You do that, it's entertaining for me and the girls to watch you argue over it."

Bill jerked his head up to look at her through narrowed eyes, "That's why you always call us your favourite!"

"Took you long enough to get that one," she said as she placed the boxes on the kitchen island and started to resize them, "Me and Ginny have spent many a night laughing in her room over it."

"Not her too… You corrupted my baby sister didn't you?" He asked, looking amused at the thought now.

"Would you believe me if I said that she corrupted me?" Nora returned, trying to look innocent.

"Honestly? I think the two of you banded together to corrupt Hermione."

Nora grinned at that, she was rather proud of the fact, "It was so tempting though!"

Bill snorted as he looked over at her plans one last time before he started the slow job of resizing the furniture and then placing them where Nora had marked on her doodles.

"Anyway, I for one think that we did a fantastic job." Nora told him as she started to set up her coffee machine.

"I will admit to that," Bill said almost absentmindedly as he focused on setting some mats in the right place around the bedframe. "I'm slightly worried about what you and Ginny can manage when you team together."

"You love when we team up really, me and my little minion are the best,"

"Nora? I hate to break it to you, but she's taller than you." Bill deadpanned.

"That's just mean, Billy," Nora told him, affecting a disappointed look as she turned to look at him, "You get no coffee if you're going to be mean."

"Doesn't make it any less true," Bill told her in a sing-song, "And you would never withhold coffee, I believe you once told mum that was a crime."

"Well it is! You cannot expect someone to wake up before the crack of dawn and not give them coffee! There has to be a law against that somewhere!" Nora had really grown to appreciate her late mornings after escaping from the Dursley's, so she did not appreciate when they were taken away from her.

Bill shot her an amused smile before turning his attention back to the bookcase that he had floating. "It's been two years now, Nora, I think it's time to let it go."

Nora stuck her tongue out at his back and then focused on the tangle of wires that she was holding, muttering as tried to sort them out, "Every damn time…"

The two fell into near silence after that, only the odd comment thrown at each other every now and then until Nora finally got around to connecting her music system. After a triumphant yell she glanced at Bill and then clicked play. A pleased grin spread across her face as she heard the opening to 'American Idiot' coming on.

"That's more like it!"

"Is that what you've spent all of this time doing?" Bill asked with a raised eyebrow. He had heard from his younger siblings all about Nora's love for music and her habit of breaking out into song.

"No," she replied with a slight blush, "I got the coffee machine working first; I just don't have anything in to make any with. Remind me to go shopping when you leave actually, I'm pretty sure Aunt Andy said something about not having cookies for breakfast and that is all I have in my bag."

"You would live on coffee and cookies if someone let you,"

"What happened to being my coffee-buddy?" Nora pouted at him as she carried the TV over to the wall opposite her bedroom corner.

"I'm still here," he assured her, unable to resist that pout even after fifteen years of his sister using it on him, "but mum would shout if I let you live on just that and mum is scary. I'm twenty-six and I will admit that."

"And the world would agree with you," Nora said with a solemn nod. "Mrs Weasley loves me though, so I'm safe."

"You are her favourite child, but I think that's just because she doesn't have to deal with you all of the time."

Nora snorted at his reply before they both silently agreed to get back to their work once more.

An hour later and they were finally finished.

"Admit it," Nora said as she sprawled across the sleeper sofa, "It looks good in here."

Nora was quite pleased about how it had turned out herself, she had everything set up, her books and comics were all in place and a couple of posters and other decorations spread out throughout the apartment. It all looked just how she had wanted it to. She could honestly say that she could see this place becoming 'home'.

"I'm completely jealous, compared to my current apartment this place is like heaven," Bill replied from where he was lying on her couch. "Just promise me one thing, Nora."

She looked over at him when she heard his suddenly serious tone.

"You'll come home eventually, even if it's just for visits. We expect to see you. We don't want to lose you too, 'Nor."

She sat up from where she was lounging to look at him properly, pulling a pillow to hug to her chest. She should have known that she would not escape the serious conversation, she had still tried to though - she had hoped that he would just ignore the elephants in the room and not bring anything up, that he would let them have their day of laughs. She should have known better.

"I'm not leaving forever, Bill," she whispered, her voice not managing any louder than that, "I'll go back eventually, I just can't right now."

"I know, 'Nor, we all realise that, well… Ron will realise that soon enough too with the others help." Bill told her, keeping his voice quiet as if he would scare her off if he spoke any louder. "But we will miss you. You're part of our crazy and ridiculously large family."

"I know," she stayed silent for a moment before giving him a small smile, "Will you do something for me?"

"That depends?" He really had learnt better than just accepting straight off the bat without knowing.

"Get Dean and Ginny together? Those two have been crushing on each other for a while now, and you know Dean will treat Ginny right."

He pulled a face at the thought of Ginny having a boyfriend, but before he could object Nora carried on.

"None of that, you big idiot, if those two miss their chance then you just know that she will end up with someone who doesn't deserve her brilliance. You have no idea how many lads I scared away from her when we were at Hogwarts," she paused for a moment, thinking about what she had just admitted to before she quickly added, "and you are not going to mention that I ever did that either."

Bill shook his head, smiling slightly at the thought of little Nora sneaking around behind Ginny and scaring people away.

"I'll think about it," he agreed when he realised that she was still waiting for an answer.

She nodded, realising that was as good as she would get out of him. She was trying to set his little sister up on a date after all.

"Good, now, if you don't mind, can I finally go into my own bathroom because I want to put some stuff away in there?" Bill had locked the door with his own magical signature earlier and it had annoyed the stuffing out of her. Just because what he had done was too advanced for her to figure out how to reverse, especially since it was done with his magical signature. Sneaky Gryffindor's who could have been Slytherin…

"Right! Present time!" He declared as he jumped up off the couch. He carried on talking to her as he walked to the bathroom door. "Now, your aunt approached us all while you were busy planning to leave us all, asking about ideas on what to get you. Originally she was thinking on getting you something to keep you company but, well, she couldn't figure out what until…" he paused as he started to unlock the bathroom door, his hand then rested on the knob as he carried on his little story. "Ron mentioned a conversation that you'd had a couple of years back, my baby brother has a weird memory, and so we all got together and got you –" he pushed the door open while he was speaking allowing Nora to see into the bathroom where a box sat in the middle of the room holding two-

"Puppies!"

Two puppies that were sleeping, at least they had been until they were disturbed by Nora's rather loud shout.

"They're Labrador Retrievers, both male and about nine, ten weeks old. They're from the same litter if you were curious." Bill told Nora, a smile playing at his lips as he watched the younger girl approach the box that held the two puppies.

Nora grinned as she knelt down in front of the box. The two puppies were looking up at her, the black one that looked slightly larger was blinking lazily at her while the yellow one, who was sprawled half across his brother, was staring up at her with what could only be described as excited curiosity.

"Their whole family has been surrounded by magic for generations, so the breeder said that, like our owls, they are that bit smarter than your average dog. He said that they will be okay to stay here while you're at school so long as you leave water and a bit of food, oh, and take them on a walk every day."

"They're brilliant, Bill!" Nora cut off his talk from going any further as she reached into the box to scratch both of the puppies behind the ears. "Do they have names yet?"

"No, we just about managed to stop Ginny from naming them."

"I don't know how you managed that but I am eternally grateful for it. We can't have these two cuties stuck with silly names!" She addressed the last part mostly to the dogs as she reached in to pick them up from the box.

Bill had to admit that Andromeda and Ron had had a good idea this time, Nora seemed genuinely happy with the dogs.

"I can tell everyone that they went down well then?"

"Oh you definitely can! And you can tell Ron that he's my new favourite Weasley!"

"…I'll do the first and kindly ignore the second."

Nora looked up from where she was cuddling her two new dogs to give him an amused look, "You do that, Billy."

"Oh, don't worry, I will," he said, completely serious, "We went ahead and bought you some supplies for these two, since for some reason I doubt you have any dog food or toys in this lovely apartment of yours." He nodded towards the second cardboard box that she had not even noticed.

"Strangely enough I think you may be right about that, eh, there's a first for everything, right?" Nora grinned up at him before hiding her face in the black Labradors fur.

"You're lucky you are holding cute puppies right now, Nora," he tells her, though he does not really mean it. "Now, since I am that much nicer than you, I'm going to leave you to your cuddles while I got out and shop for you and then I'm going to have to actually do my job and set up your wards."

"You're a star, Bill, even if you are just trying to claim the favourite spot once more," she told him, not bothering to look up from her cuddles. "There's a list on the kitchen island, I was working on it as I put things away, if you just add a green dog collar to it as well as a red one, then that should do until I can get out myself."

Bill nodded, collected the list and then took his leave. Nora, on the other hand, stayed sat on the bathroom floor for a while before she stood up with her two babies and walked over to her bed, she set the two of them down and then looked at them seriously,

"Now, don't think this means that you're allowed up there all of the time, we're going to have some rules in this house. I just need to sort your stuff out." She tried to keep up her serious face, she did, but it was just too amusing watching the black Labrador flop down in the middle of her bed without a care, even as his brother started to once more crawl all over him. "I think I can tell who will be more trouble," she snorted with a shake of her head before walking back to the bathroom and grabbing the second box that Bill had pointed out.

She then proceeded to empty the box in the middle of the floor and find everything a home. She set one comfy looking dog bed down near her bed while the other one went over by her sofas and TV. She picked out a cupboard to keep the dog food after putting some in a bowl and placing that under the window near her dining room table, along with a full water bowl. She left some toys out and hung up the two leads on the hooks by her apartment door.

She could be good at this owning a dog thing, she was sure of it.


	3. A Moment of Peace

**_I know its been so long and I can only say I'm so sorry! But hey, the next bit is here eventually! I finally found a moment of peace where I'm chilled enough to just focus on that, and hey, who knew that was possibly at uni? This has been sat on the memory stick that I still use though, silently judging me every time I go to do uni work._**

 ** _So, this chapter was originally longer, but this is the first half. I was going through what I had written ages ago and editing it and this part alone gained, like, 700 extra words on its own. I'm not even that sure how. So I thought I'd split it in two and post this while I focused on what is now chapter four. To be honest I'm not sure if my writing has changed that much since I was last here, so I will just apologise if this is a bit of a change from the previous. For now though, enjoy and the next bit will be up soon (I swear it this time!)_**

 ** _Guess what though? I still don't own anything._**

* * *

 **25 August, 2010;**

 **Ohio:**

After Bill had returned to her flat along with multiple shopping bags for her, he had got to work doing what he was being paid to be there for – that being, he set about creating the series of wards that would act as her security system. He could not set up anything too vicious or damaging for the simple fact that Nora was now living in the muggle world and it was expected that, eventually, she would make some muggles friends that she may want to hang out at her home with her. It was annoying, but Bill was not a Weasley for nothing – he could find ways around such silly things as that. In the end he had settled on a neat little pattern of intent-wards that would turn any away who wished harm to the occupants of the apartment, of course he also twisted in a few other wards that he had picked up over the years through the lines of the more basic-looking wards – these being ones that were designed to only react to magicals, some of which may be slightly more vicious than strictly necessary. In the end he was quite proud of the invisible net that he had protecting Nora's flat.

Nora of course had only shaken her head at his show of pride, passed him a cup of coffee that he could take with him and then sent him back to his family before they could start to worry too much about him being gone all day.

"Time differences, remember. Oh, and remind Dean and Hermione that they can always phone me, so long as they remember the time." By that, she naturally meant 'please tell them to ring me, don't let them forget me,' but she could not just flat out ask for something such as that – what if they then felt pressured into it and only rang her out of pity?

Yeah, okay, so maybe she still had some insecurities. But they were well hidden, for all anyone needed to know she was a badass, well-adjusted witch.

With that promise extracted from Bill, she had pushed him out of the door and then turned around to start putting her shopping away. She had to actually wake up at some point the next morning and she was not going to make the same mistake that she made every single first night back at Hogwarts – she always regretted it when it came to morning and she had to unpack her stuff without even having her coffee first.

It had taken her just over half an hour to pack everything away as well as to organise everything in her bathroom, by the time she was done she was more than ready to fall into her bed for the night. All she had to first was kick an extremely comfy looking black puppy off her bed first…

She may have spent the next five minutes staring at him before finally giving it up for the moment and getting changed into her pyjamas first. There's nothing like procrastinating to keep the cute little bugger happy for a moment longer.

She then may have further waster some time by setting up some quiet music to play for the next half hour before she finally resigned herself to playing the bad guy and moving the sleeping puppy.

On the bright side, at least she did not have to disturb his brother too; the smaller pup had been happily bouncing around behind her as she wandered the apartment.

Nora pressed a kiss to the snoozing dogs head before carefully picking him up and carrying him over to the dog bed that she had placed by her own bed.

"We'll have to give you two names tomorrow, I can't just keep calling you 'puppies', hmm?" She murmured as she set the Labrador down on his bed. She chuckled quietly as the yellow Labrador immediately scrambled over to start crawling over his poor brother. "Goodnight you two," she told them before standing up after one last scratch behind their ears.

Finally, she managed to climb into her own comfortable bed and fell asleep nearly straight away. She really did not care that it was only six at night; she was more than ready for bed at that point. Technically, to her, it was more like eleven and she had had a long day.

Once more came around – far too soon if anyone asked her – Nora was woken up by her phone making an annoying buzzing sound. With a grunt she lifted one hand from her bed and patted around for the device that she was used to getting only a couple months of use out of a year. As soon as she had hold of it, she flicked off the alarm automatically before dropping her phone on the bed and dragging herself from her little nest.

She never even noticed the two puppies that had been curled up next to her on the bed.

Nora stumbled all of the way to her kitchen corner where she flicked her coffee machine on and then rested her head on the counter as she waited for one of her favourite machines to start working. She quickly fell back asleep stood there until the machine beeped at her.

She sniffled slightly and lifted her head up; reaching out almost blindly for the hot cup of coffee that was waiting for her. After her first sip, the first smile of the day appeared on her face, "Mm… I think I'm in heaven," she muttered before going back to drinking her coffee. Absentmindedly she wriggled her toes into the little mat that she had placed in front of that toes, silently congratulating herself on thinking ahead – no cold floor for her!

She was halfway through her cup before a soft bark caught her attention.

Nora finally opened her eyes fully before looking down at the grumpy black Labrador puppy that was stood at her feet; she blinked twice before her brain caught up with her.

"Don't like being ignored then, little guy?" She asked as she crouched down, her cup still in one hand even as the other reached out to stroke him.

The puppy merely huffed as he plonked himself down in front of her.

Don't like mornings, huh?" she grinned at him and pressed a kiss to his nose. "Neither do I, unfortunately it is ten already and we are going on a little jog before I have to go to school. I have a meeting," she pulled a face as she spoke, "but after that I should be back home to join you in your grumpiness."

She gave his ear one final scratch before draining her coffee and flicking the machine back on to make another cup. While that was getting ready for her she tipped some dog food into the waiting bowl, topped up their water and then headed into the bathroom to take care of some business before she got dressed.

She left the bathroom with minty fresh breath and grinned at the black Labrador who had apparently taken to following her this morning. "I guess you need a name, buddy," she thought out loud even as she walked to her wardrobes and started to dig out some of her exercise clothes – she could remember back when exercise was a chore that she would moan and groan about, now look at her, getting ready to go and do it of her own freewill.

She made short work of changing into the stretchy leggings and a tank top before she threw a light jacket onto her bed along with her IPod.

She caught sight of a pile of comics that she had piled onto the shelf above her bed the night before, causing a grin to spread across her face, "You know, I think I have the perfect names for you two." She told the black Labrador, even as she nudged his smaller brother awake.

She picked up the yellow Lab and kissed his head before she set him on the floor, "I think you're going to be 'Parker', little one," she told the smaller of the two, smiling as he stumbled slightly to follow her to the kitchen.

She grabbed her second cup of coffee and starting to drink it as she kept moving to find where she had stored her trainers.

"And you," she told the black Labrador once she had found her trainers, "you're going to be called 'Hulk'."

She drained the last of her cup and then pulled her trainers onto her feet, wiggling her toes inside of them.

Nora dumped her empty coffee cup in the sink to be washed later, pulled her jacket on, tucked her IPod into a zipped pocket and then finally clipped the two leads onto the newly named pups' collars.

"Now, we're going to have no funny business outside, are we? We're well behaved puppies, aren't we, Hulk? That's what I thought!" She told them, speaking as if they could answer back.

Okay, she officially loved having pets again. It gave her the perfect excuse to speak aloud without seeming crazy and best of all, they would not judge her. Well – glancing at Hulk – they would not judge her too much. Damn, Bill was right when he said they would probably be smarter than your average dog.

She scratched both of them behind their ears before she grabbed her keys, stuffed them in a second zipped pocket and then exited her apartment for the first time since arriving.

She was not too worried about her first meeting with any neighbours being in some of her exercise clothes and looking like a bit of a slob with her dark purple hair having only been thrown up into a simple ponytail; it was too late in the morning for normal people to be about and still too early for people to be appearing back at home for lunch.

She made quick work of the stairs even with her too little tagalongs, so it was not long before they were outside and in the sunshine.

"Let's see how far we can take you two then," she murmured as she stuck one of her headphones in her ear and then began a gentle jog down the street, silently ignoring the voice in her head that sounded like one that she missed everyday telling her off for ignoring her stretches – it was not like she was going to go for an actual run.

She glanced down at the two puppies that were running alongside her, both of whom seemed to be enjoying the little bit of exercise, the weird creatures. It had taken her sister days to talk her into going for runs, and even then it was only through blackmail and Nora still complained every time.

When the two puppies looked like they were going to start to tire soon, she paused for a moment to let them have a rest before encouraging them back the way that they had come from.

In her head she decided that she would go for runs without them when she could – it would not do to let all of her sister's hard work to go to waste and to start to get unfit.

About half of the way back she leaned don to scoop Hulk up, Parker happily carrying on at her side as she slowed to a walk.

Once they were safely back at her apartment with the door shut behind them, she let the two dogs off their leads and watched as the two of them sniffed around before heading towards their bowls. Smiling slightly at them, she took herself off to shower in peace.

Half an hour later and she was stood in front of her wardrobes for the second time that day, a frown on her face and only in a pair of ripped black jeans. Parker was chewing on a toy on the bed behind her with Hulk at her feet, the pair of them having long filled themselves up for the time being.

"C'mon, Hulk, help a human out here!" She said as she held up two tops for him to see.

Hulk looked up at her for a moment before settling his head down on his paws once more.

"Just for that I'm going to wear the spider earring." She told him before she shrugged and threw one top back into the wardrobe. She pulled the remaining dark red cropped vest top on instead and then pulled out a slightly worn-down little blue denim jacket to wear over top.

There was no use dressing to look smart and pretend to be someone that she was not – it was best that they saw her as she was now.

She pulled a small box from one of her bookshelves before she settled down on the bed next to Parker. She scratched his head as he settled it on her thigh, her over hand digging through her box of earrings as she selected which ones for the day. Of course, she already had the small pink 'T' in her right lobe, but that one barely left her ear now anyway.

Once she was satisfied with her choices she looped her star necklace over her head and then put her box back on its shelf before she put her shoes on – dark red canvas high tops to match her top. If there was one thing that she had found she was more than willing to spend money on then it was her converse style shoes, well, that and her music.

"Now, I have to go out for the afternoon, so you two are going to behave. No loud noises, no big messes and definitely no wild parties, okay? Okay. I'm leaving the balcony door open in case you are desperate for the loo," she told them as she stood up and grabbed her old school bag, throwing it over one shoulder. Bill had assured her that the wards covered the balcony as well as the roof that it led to – since both came with her apartment.

"Okay," she mumbled to herself again, having checked one last time that her bag contained all of the paperwork that she may need for the day as well as anything else that she may need. Her Inner-Hermione had her covering all of her bases.

She grabbed her keys, phone and IPod before she was out of there and heading to McKinley High School. She had a meeting with a certain headmaster – Principle!

Dammit.

* * *

 _ **So, that's it for now, I'll have that next bit up soon and we will definitely be into Glee then! As previous, I'm still accepting song suggestions.**_

 _ **-Mel. x**_


	4. A Teenage Nightmare

_**Hey guys, didn't I tell you you would not have to wait too long for the next chapter this time and look, I actually delivered (please don't hate me)**_

 _ **This is where it starts to get tricky for me, I always struggle with characters outside of HP, I get paranoid that I will mess them up too much. I still want to try though, so that's got to count for something, right? Please tell me if there is anything you think I should do differently about the characters at some point, I'm always interested to hear what people have to say. Keep in mind for my HP lot that things happened quite a bit differently for them, something that will either go into more depth in this story or in a just-HP prequel, I haven't decided yet but I have basically all of the slight changes and big changes written out in notes so we'll see. Anyway...**_

 ** _I don't own anything._**

* * *

 **25 August, 2010;**

 **Ohio:**

Having vaguely known that the walk to the school would be a fairly long and boring one, Nora had pulled out her IPod and headphones as she was walking so that she could plug them in and listen to some music as she walked. She smiled slightly as the thought of her headphones brought up the thought of how they never failed to confuse Ron. Bless him… For Hermione, Dean, and herself, he was an endless source of amusement when it came to muggle technology. Well, at least he was until he found some way to break it. Then he just got slapped upside the head.

Nora tried to make quick work of walking the route that she had memorised from an online map – and she only got turned around once! – there was no way that she was going to be late to her meeting if she could help it. Even she knew that would not look good for her.

She let a smile spread across her face when she heard the beginnings of The Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand" coming through her headphones, just as she entered the school grounds.

She started to sing quietly under her breathe as she walked through the school grounds – she really could not resist a bit of The Beatles. She barely paid any attention to her surroundings – call her Fluffy, but her music was one of the few things that caused her to drop her guard – as such, she did not notice the short brunette in slightly odd clothes giving her an interested look. She only really started to pay attention when some noise started to find its way through her headphones. With a raised eyebrow, she flicked her own music off and pulled out her headphones, looking up to see a group of students break out into song.

She watched them for a moment, an amused little smile playing at her lips before she shrugged and started to walk once the singing had stopped. That was strange and she could not help but wonder what it was about, but she could not deny that they had talent. Whatever it was though, she still had a meeting to get to.

After being pointed in the right direction by a girl in what she assumed was a cheerleader outfit – and she did not know that was an actual thing in America, she thought it had just been something that was exaggerated on Muggle TV! – Nora finally made it to the principal's office and knocked on the glass door. A glass wall to a teachers' office, huh, that was a far cry from Dumbledore's gargoyle.

As soon as she was nodded in, she pushed open the door and offered the man a smile.

"Hi, I'm Nora Evans-Tonks; I'm supposed to have a meeting right about now about starting here?" She asked, stood half-way in the room and fiddling with the strap of her bag. Why was she so nervous about this? It was just one little meeting with a muggle man, she had faced much worse before now!

"Nora… Eleanor? Of course! Come in! Come in," the man behind the desk said, spreading his hands out slightly in what she assumed was a welcoming gesture, "Take a seat. I'm Principal Figgins."

She offered him a smile, slightly relieved that she had the right time and day. "I've got all of my paperwork in my bag, I wasn't sure if I would need it." She told him as she sat down on a chair, letting her bag slide to the floor next to her.

"This was just to make sure you were ready to start, your guardian put in your papers that you missed a year of school," Figgins said as he brought out a folder.

"Mhm, that's right… Things were going on and we agreed it would be better if I started a year below. You call that a Sophomore, right?" Nora sat, fidgeting slightly with the star on her necklace. Maybe the nerves were because this was the last place where everything could go wrong and she would end up having no choice but to go home and face all of the memories. Yeah, that was probably it if she was honest with herself.

Figgins nodded as he glanced through her file, "Yes. It says here that you are living alone."

"Yeah, is that gonna be a problem? I mean, I have permission from my legal guardian and she said something about getting me emancipated if need be." In other words: please do not focus on that, let it go!

"No, no, we have it written, that is fine. It is advised, though, that you set up a meeting with our guidance counsellor but other than that, everything is okay!" Figgins assured her quickly.

Nora nodded at that, "I don't have to meet with her though, right? It's just advised?" She really did not want to meet with some stranger of a guidance counsellor, she was quite alright on her own, thank you very much.

"Well… Just advised, yes," he frowned slightly before looking at her file once again as if to remind himself what to do with her. "Since everything is in order, you can either start tomorrow morning or this afternoon. Your choice!"

Nora thought about it for all of three seconds before she let her Inner-Hermione once more influence her, "Can I start this afternoon, I think it'd be best just to get into it." Why did she feel like she was going to regret that?

"Of course!" He seemed quite pleased with that, so maybe it was the right decision. "You just need to collect your timetable and your slip from the front desk. They should have it ready for you, Eleanor."

Nora winced slightly at her full name but nodded her head anyway. "Thank you, sir." She said before she pulled her hair over her left shoulder (thank merlin he had not commented on the colour) and swung her bag up on her right as she stood up. She smiled at him before she quickly retreated from his office, all the while wondering where the front desk actually was…

After two wrong turns and some more directions, she finally found the front desk and managed to collect her timetable and the small slip of paper that, apparently, all of her teachers had to sign.

She glanced over her timetable, feeling slightly relieved that she had though to pack some pens and a couple of notebooks just in case. After silently thanking Hermione – and why did she feel like that would happen a lot? – for drilling it into her to always be prepared for her education, Nora started to head towards her first class. Even though it was still technically lunch time at McKinley High, she knew that she would more than likely struggle to find the right room.

If she could figure out how to navigate Hogwarts though, then she held out hope that she would have an American muggle high school down within the week.

In the end she did not have to worry too much about finding her way since she bumped straight into a blonde that was taller than her (everyone seemed taller than her though!) who had a surprisingly firm chest… as her head found out when it collided with it.

"Bugger!" she said without thinking and then blushed and looked up at the person that she had run into. "I'm sorry, guess I wasn't paying enough attention."

The blonde smiled sheepishly and slowly moved his hands away from where he had been steadying her, one hand going up to ruffle his hair slightly.

"It's fine, neither was I." He glanced her over before frowning slightly, "Lost?"

"That obvious is it?" She quirked an eyebrow and then smiled at him.

"No, but that was me a couple of days ago," he explained with a shrug, "I might not be the best help but I'm sure I can point you in a direction close."

"That's better than what I've got," she shrugged and turned her timetable around to show him, "English Literature, any ideas?"

He stared at it for a minute before nodding his head slowly, "I think that's the same as me, so I'm your best help after all."

"Aren't you my own superhero then," she grinned at him as she put her timetable in her pocket. "Lead the way."

"Sam," the blonde said quickly after a minute of walking in silence. "Sam I-" he stumbled slightly over his words before getting out, "I am Sam."

She looked over at him, an eyebrow raised as she murmured, almost without realising it, "Do you like green eggs and ham?" She blushed as soon as she realised what she had said, before hiding behind her hair. She silently wished that she had Dean with her, he normally helped her think a bit before speaking and if she did not then he would help her brush it off. She disliked meeting new people by herself, she really did. She had not even had her first lesson and already she was going to be known as the weird new kid. So much for her making any new friends in Ohio!

The blonde looked over at her in surprise before a slow grin spread across his face, "I do not like them, Sam-I-am!"

She opened her mouth, about to brush off her comment and try to make some excuse, before she caught onto what he said and looked at him in surprise instead.

"You know Seuss?" The blonde, who she would guess was actually called Sam, asked.

"My dad-" she frowned slightly and abruptly stopped that train of thought. Shaking her head, she instead said, "I know a bit."

"Do you have a name?" he asked after they had started to fall into silence once more.

"Name? Oh! Nora, sorry, I forgot you wouldn't know that. I'm used to everyone knowing… everyone." She shrugged and then tugged slightly at her hair before she could start to ramble too much and scare him away.

"Nora," he nodded, before glancing over at her, "I have to ask, what's with the hair?"

She grinned up at him, feeling more relaxed and friendly with a topic that she was comfortable with, "You're not asking about the accent first? I'm pretty sure you just lost some of my friends back home a bet, Sam-I-am."

"That is obvious though," he grinned back at her, "You love Doctor Who."

"Not untrue," she agreed with a slight shake of her head, "but not the reason. As for the hair, I like purple. I could ask you the same but I'm not going to, I'm nice like that." She got her slip signed by the teacher before she followed him to some desks in the middle of the room.

Sitting in the middle of the room – a system that she and Dean had come up with years ago. If you sit in the front then you are open for the teacher to see everything you do, at the back and you just make it look like you want to slack off. Admittedly, their system would have worked better in Hogwarts if Nora had not been so well known.

"I don't-" he started to say before she nudged him to shut him up.

"I've been dealing with coloured hair since I was eleven, no point fibbing," true, she never actually used dyes, but she had studied all types of hair colours, including those that were fake. "I won't tell anyone though; you want to colour your hair then go ahead. I think I'm all for freedom of colour." She indicated her own dark purple locks with a grin before she started to pull out a notebook and a pen from the depths of her bag.

Sam sat silently next to her after that. She was worried that she had just lost her first chance at a friend because of her big mouth.

After five minutes of a silent classroom – she was pretty sure the kid diagonal from her was taking a nap – she was contemplating pulling out her phone and texting Dean. She couldn't do this! How was she expected to make new friends when she was pretty sure the only reason she had the ones that she did was because they had bonded through danger. Dogs she could deal with, but not humans! Dogs were easy compared to the minefield that was humans!

Just as her fidgeting was starting to get worse, Sam nudged her with his elbow.

When she glanced over at him he offered her a small friendly smile, "You dyed your hair when you were eleven?" He whispered.

"Yup," she whispered back, glad that he did not, apparently, hate her, "I started a new boarding school, rebelled against my… guardians and got myself some new ones. It was an interesting year." And that was seriously understating her first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry by calling it just 'interesting' – she was pretty sure she nearly died three times just in that year alone. And that really was a sad thought, she could quite honestly say that she had lost count of the number of times she had nearly died before she was even a teenager.

"Do I want to know?"

She thought over her first year quickly and tried to think of a muggle-friendly way to tell it before shaking her head, "Probably not." She glanced around the room before looking up at the clock, "What's the deal with this class anyway?" She asked as she started to doodle on the corner of her notebook, "Do we do any work?"

"Miss Lewis is a bit… useless, from what I was told." He shrugged, his forehead creasing slightly as he thought of something, "It's not helpful."

"That makes me so glad I agreed to start this afternoon then." She muttered, paused for a moment before she frowned and added, "Actually, the other option was starting with Algebra and that is a horror I do not want to think about. At least here I have Mr. Green-Eggs-And-Ham."

"Are you ever going to forget that?" Either way, he did not look too bothered, if anything he looked slightly amused by his new name.

"Never," she said in her best impression of the Weasley twins – for the first time it did not feel like something was completely breaking inside her as she thought of them – with a slightly devious grin on her face. "My friend back home will be jealous that he missed such an awesome introduction," she told Sam with a shrug, "Normally my mouth gets me into trouble, nice that it did not for once."

Nora glanced around the room before looking down at the doodles in her notebook, not even surprised that it had started to take out the faintest shape of her friends back home – she could see what would be Dean with his arm slung around both Ginny and her, Ron mid-way through reaching an arm around Hermione before aborting mid-way and tugging on her hair instead (he was such a six-year-old sometimes!), Luna looking off into space with that happy little crinkle between her eyes, Neville rubbing the back of his head. She missed the simple days, she really did, when they could just relax down at the lake. But then again, when was any of it truly simple back then? There had always been that cloud hanging over their heads, getting darker and darker as the years passed…

She shook her head to dispel those thoughts before she quickly turned the page in her notebook and grabbed a worksheet that had been sat on the corner of her desk. She quickly started to jot down what could be an answer or two.

If Sam noticed her odd behaviour, he decided not to comment it. Something that she was especially glad for, when he kept up a quiet conversation with her as he started to look over the worksheet too.

Maybe she really did have one friend already. That was a happy thought.

Just before the bell was set to go off for the end of class, she found her old Gryffindor nerve and grabbed his phone from his pocket. She quickly typed in her phone number – something that both Hermione and Aunt Andy had forced her to learn – and saved it to his phone. "Text me sometime, yeah? Us new kids have to stick together!" she told him as she passed it back to him and then put her notebook and pen back into her bag. "I have another classroom to find," she said, already knowing from their talking during class that it was not with him, "See you later, Sam," she grinned at him before darting out of the classroom.

She had a Home Ec. Class to get to and she really hoped that they were baking cookies instead of something boring.

It was just her luck that the opposite happened instead.

Goodbye boring first class, hello too many more to go.

Why did she agree to go back to high school again?

* * *

 _ **Hope you all enjoyed it. I know this chapter and the one before it were shorter than the first two, but that's because it was originally one long chapter that I cut in half.**_

 _ **Remember to comment with any songs that you would like to see - who/what/when etc.. I'll see what I can do**_

 _ **-Mel. x**_


	5. Life Carries On

_**Whoop, chapter five!**_

 _ **Just a note, I know I have been putting the dates throughout the chapters but I think that is going to stop soon. I get slightly confused on the timing within Glee, so I am just going to keep the estimated time within my notes and maybe post the month every now and then just to make sure everyone is following it. Sorry if this annoys anyone, but I am really bad with dates anyway and its just bugging the life out of me trying to figure everything out exactly.**_

 _ **I hope you all enjoy it.**_

 _ **As usual I do not own anything.**_

* * *

 **26 August, 2010;**

 **Ohio:**

The next morning happened much like the day before, as long as you include waking up a ridiculous amount of hours earlier (who wakes up half five? Maybe those theories of her not being completely in charge of her mental faculties may have been on to something after all…), an extra cup of coffee, being much grouchier, and a travel mug full of coffee all as being the same, then yes. Nora's second morning in America was just like her first.

In other words, Nora really did want to know who invented early mornings so that she could have a strong word with them.

The night before she had arrived home in a panic and called her aunt on her old mirror, having finally realised that she had forgotten to do so the day that she arrived. Luckily for her, Bill had thought ahead to inform her aunt that she had in fact arrived safely, was settling in fine and that she loved the dogs. Her aunt probably would have been a lot more ticked off at her if not for Bill, so thank Merlin for Weasley's!

At least she got to tell her aunt what she had named the puppies though, names that only caused her aunt to shake her head in resignation and ask how the meeting at school went ("Please tell me you remembered to go!" "Of course I did, who do you take me for – Ron?"). She also checked that she had not had cookies for breakfast, which she had not actually had to lie about when she said that she did not have cookies for breakfast, Aunt Andy just forgot to ask what she actually had, so therefore it was perfectly fine that only she had to cups of coffee. (Who was the sneaky Slytherin now, Aunt Andy?) Nora just made herself a note to remember to have something else along with her coffee in the future – there was no use in risking it.

All in all, it was a conversation that went quite well and there were only a few sad looks or pauses – and she did not even need to lie once. She would take that as a win any day.

Which leads her to standing in front of her wardrobe with Hulk and Parker watching her once more – though this time she had a banana in hand that she would absentmindedly take a bite from every now and then! She could remember to eat by herself, clearly.

She frowned at her three wardrobes – all of which were open – as she finished off her banana and set about putting her hair in a loose braid over her left shoulder.

She had far too many clothes, she decided, and she still was not sure how that had happened. She would just blame one (or all) of her friends back home, that would more than likely be the safe bet.

She shrugged slightly once she had tied her hair off and grabbed her light grey Abbey Road t-shirt; yesterday had got her in a bit of a Beatles mood. Since she had finally settled on a top, she easily picked the rest of her clothes around that. Tatty black denim shorts and a black sweater cardigan. After grabbing it from where it hung over her bedframe, her long star necklace completed the outfit – she loved that thing, the length of it made it perfect for fiddling with.

Nora was not quite sure when she had started caring so much about what clothes she wore. She almost missed the days in fact where she would just grab the first clothes she saw and throw them on, but then she would catch sight of herself and pause for a moment thinking, 'I picked this, these are my clothes' and she would feel a sort of pride. If she ever mentioned that to someone then they would probably find a way to blame the Dursley's and say how it was because they would not give her a choice between rags. (If she were honest with herself then they would be right.)

Finally ready for the day, Nora kisses both Hulk and Parker on the head, double checks their bowls are full, and then slips on some purple converse before she is out the door with her bag and coffee. "See you later, baby boys, behave!" she calls to the dogs before she shuts the door behind her and is gone for the day.

Hopefully they really would be okay with her gone most of the day like Bill had told her they would be. She would probably still worry slightly.

She frowned slightly as her bag banged against her leg as she walked; apparently she had found some way to make it heavier even after taking all of her paperwork out of it.

With a sigh, she pushed on past the weight and headed out of the apartment building, nodding a hello to a couple of her new neighbours as she passed them by. It was just another day as life carried on, but at least she could enjoy some peace and quiet now.

She fished her IPod out of her bag as she walked out of the building and then managed to balance her travel mug as she put her headphones in her ears and turned it on. As soon as she heard the first beat of a song start up, she automatically relaxed and it felt like the walk to the high school was made shorter.

Ah music, it really was a magic all on its own.

Of course, her music-induced relaxation ended as soon as she stepped into the school building and was practically barrelled into by a brunette missile that was (amazingly enough) around her height!

She slowly pulled her headphones out when she saw the brunettes impatient look. "Can I help you?" She asked, while silently wondering what it was with her and meeting people while running into them. If she also wondered what she had done to deserve such an annoying greeting when it was so early, then no one needed to know but her.

"I believe it's better stated how I can help you, you see, I couldn't help but overhear you singing yesterday before our show in the courtyard and I think that you would be perfect for Glee club. We need more members who can sway along in the background while the spotlight is on me, after all we would not be a club without the little members." The brunette said all in one breath, ploughing through her speech as if it did not insult anyone – which, from what Nora caught, it probably did.

When it looked like she was going to carry on, Nora quickly used all of her training at defusing Hermione's rants to interject, "What's a glee club?"

"Is that a British accent, we could use that, never mind- A glee club is our musical group, we sing songs and perform and this year we will be heading to New York for our competition!"

Since the brunette looked like she was once again going to work herself up to a rant, Nora decided that a quick retreat was probably her safest bet.

"That's neat, but I really need to get going. I'll think about it and ask someone at some point if I want to sign up. I'll see you around. It was nice meeting you-… person." Nora nodded before making her escape down the corridor.

She barely glanced back as she looked around for her maths class – that was just weird! She had not even caught the girls name.

Of course, since it was her first full day at the school, she quickly managed to forget all about the strange brunette who had ambushed her when she had arrived that morning. She was more focused on not getting lost as well as trying to memorise names and figuring out a completely muggle education once more. Well, all that and texting Sam since he had sent her a message the night before and they had been texting back and to ever since. It was nice to have a friend that she could see in person once again – she had not realised just how quickly she would miss that, having become used to seeing someone every day. It was also kind of nice that he did not know all about her, rather depressing, history before ever having met her either. So, bonus for the muggle world!

She pouted slightly during one of her mid-morning classes when he texted that he was not going to be around at break or lunch, but shrugged it off fairly quickly and headed to her locker. She wanted to put some pictures up inside of it as well as dump her bag there.

She was glad to see that the corridor was mostly deserted when she reached it, meaning that she could quickly make work of getting her unfamiliar locker open without being bumped about. Once she had the little metal door open she pushed her bag inside and then pulled out a couple of pictures – all of which were completely muggle-friendly, thank you very much Dean!

She smiled sadly as she stuck two older photos up, one of her and Dora when she was thirteen – the both of them had bright pink hair and even brighter smiles – and another of her with all of her friends just before the Yule Ball in her fourth year. She brushed a finger over her big sister's cheek before shaking her head and pinning one up of baby Teddy where he, miraculously, had normal coloured hair. She then stuck a smaller picture of her two new babies (Hulk and Parker, of course) underneath that.

Altogether she was quite pleased with her little collection. Sure, a couple made her sad, but even a couple of days away from Britain had reminded her that she could find happiness buried under the sadness. As the old man who kept trying to keep secrets once said, 'happiness can be found even in the darkest of times'. He really could be quite clever sometimes, for such an idiot anyway – may he rest in peace.

Nora pulled out a couple of things from her bag that she knew she would be needing before slamming her locker closed and looking for the nearest exit. She wanted some sunshine!

Once she found her way outside she quickly figured out that there were no tables free so she had to settle for a half empty one where an odd collection of kids – from what she had seen of William McKinley High School anyway – were sitting. She opted to plug her IPod in once more and ignore the world.

Slowly the day carried on.

She met Sam in English Lit. once more, where she asked him how his trying to get on to the football (not the one that she was so familiar with thanks to Dean's lectures) team was going. Then the two of them worked together on the days' worksheets. She was curious on why he seemed to be struggling with it, but decided that if he did not want to mention it then it was none of her business and she would just nudge him along if he needed it. (She could be good at school work, take that Hermione!)

After another dreadfully boring Home Economics class she finally escaped back to her apartment, where she turned her computer set it on her kitchen island and then got to work with cooking while she attempted some of her homework when it was possible.

Well, she was at least planning to attempt more of her homework than just one question, but then she got a skype call from Hermione that she was quick to answer instead – she was not even surprised that it turned out that half of the old gang was surrounding the bushy haired girl either.

She grinned when she heard the chorus of greetings from them still though.

"This is a nice surprise," she said as she turned back around to the stove to check on her pasta. "I have to check though, safety reasons and all that, are you keeping those two Weasley's that you have with you away from the computer?"

She laughed when she heard two groans from the redheads – the two of them more than used to the friendly teasing by that point. Glancing over her shoulder she threw them a wink.

"Missing me already, you lot? Where's Neville and my Lulu?" She asked them as she wiped her hands on a tea towel and turned to face them properly.

"Course we miss you, Nora, now when are you coming home?" Dean pouted at her, even as he butted his way to the centre of the screen.

"Not for a while, Dean, you know that." She told him as she waved a nice and warm cookie at the screen – so she may have got distracted before starting on making her dinner, big deal. "Now I have to ask, have you finally given in and asked that lovely redhead next to you out – and I don't mean Ron."

She grinned as soon as she spotted the blush that crept up on Ginny's cheeks at her words. You could always count on a Weasley giving themselves away with the red.

Of course, she laughed outright when the two of them muttered, "We have no idea what you're talking about."

"Okay, Nora, that's enough teasing from you," Hermione said with an exasperated sigh – you would think that the poor girl would be used to their antics after so many years.

"How's everything going over there?" Nora asked them as she bit into her cookie. She really could not care less that she was ruining her dinner by snacking, her cookies were too tasty to deny!

"Never mind that-" Ron shook of her question, his eyes glued to the screen, "Is that one of your homemade cookies? Fresh from the oven?" Nora was pretty sure that she could see him drooling just at the thought of it.

"Why, yes it is, Ronald. Jealous?" She teased him before taking another bite. "Yum!"

"You are pure evil, Potter, and I'm getting a Portkey over there!"

Nora snorted when Hermione grabbed his jumper and dragged him back into frame.

"I doubt your mum would appreciate that, Ron, now one of you answer the question."

"Well…" that was Hermione, "we've got word that Hogwarts is set to be opening for the year on the first of October – they said it should all be fixed up by then you see…"

Nora swallowed her cookie, barely even tasting it after that bit of news. That was not what she had been expecting. "Oh." She said, oh-so-intelligently.

The four on the screen seemed to be waiting for her to say more to the news that they had just delivered, so she turned around to stir her pasta sauce to avoid their stares.

"That's good that they can… fix everything so quickly." She said, her voice lacking any sign of her feelings to the subject, which, in itself was a big give away. Nora only really sounded that bad when she did not want to feel anything or when she was getting trapped in her memories, often both happened at the same time.

"Oh, Nora…" she heard Hermione sigh before her bushy haired friend forced some cheer into her voice, "So how are things going with you? Are you enjoying muggle high school? You are doing well with your classes, right? You aren't slacking?" Of course that was Hermione's idea of changing the subject, but at least some things would never really change. "I sometimes wish that I could experience muggle high school, oh you must tell me all about it!"

"'Mione, relax would you?" Nora replied, the cheer in her voice just as forced as Hermione's had been. "High school is… boring. It's worse than Hogwarts. I think my sanity is slipping away, Hermione, that's how boring it is! Stay away before its grabs you and drags you in!"

Her four oldest friends recognised her trying to put some humour into the conversation of course, but they were willing to go along with it if it kept her talking and her focus away from the past.

"Oh it can't be that bad." Hermione said, kindly ignoring Nora's quick 'yes it can'. "What classes are you taking?"

"It's a nightmare, honestly! I had algebra this morning and they were asking me to find X but then they went on about what Y equals and how this affects X and I was banging my head on the desk, Hermione. Why would maths need all of these letters? I remember maths from primary school, what happened to it? And Spanish! It's almost as bad as French was. Remind me why I can't just learn languages with the help of magic again?" She carried on talking though even as Hermione tried to explain just why she could not use magic to learn a language. She had built herself up to a rant and she needed to get it all out. "Then there's World History and guess what? Not a drop of goblin wars and apparently knowing all about Grindelwald is still not knowing enough about the Second World War! And then there was science class and I'm pretty sure that _she_ was speaking a foreign language. But hey! At least I have English Literature where I think my teacher actually took a nap today! That definitely save my brain from melting. And guess what, Hermione? I've had two Home Economics classes and not a single cookie has been made!" She finished her rant by taking a bite of the cookie that she had picked up once again – she needed something to soothe her.

Meanwhile the four on her laptop screen were mixed between wide-eyed shock (Ron and Hermione) and looking amused at her ranting (Dean and Ginny).

"That sounds… really interesting, Nora." Hermione started, shooting a glare at Dean when he snorted.

"'Nor, my marvellous best friend, your crazy was showing for a moment there." Dean told her, placing his hand over Hermione's mouth to keep her quiet.

"It was?" Nora blinked at the screen, "Oh. You see what high school is driving me to, 'Mione? This is why I need Dean around; he keeps me sane." Nora nodded seriously at the screen.

"Of course he does, Nora, he does not at all encourage it," Ginny agreed, shooting a look at the taller boy. "Now will you finally tell me what you named the puppies because I had the perfect names picker out and-"

"Ginevra Weasley, don't you dare!" Nora told her, narrowing her eyes at the redhead. "I am pretty sure that we banned you from naming so much as your own children, so that definitely includes naming poor defenceless puppies!"

Ginny rolled her eyes, more than used to her friends' unreasonableness when it came to names. "Yeah, yeah, so what did you name them?"

Nora grinned at the screen before admitting, "Hulk and Parker."

Hermione groaned, burying her face in her hands as Dean did a fist pump, "I knew you would go comic! Pay up Hermione!"

"You were betting on my babies! Really? Is nothing at all sacred to you lot?" Nora asked with a roll of her eyes at the sight of Hermione passing Dean a couple of golden galleons.

"Is this coming from the girl who set up the bet on when Dean and Ginny will get together?" Hermione asked. Devious little Hermione shifting the focus back onto her!

"Yes. Yes, it is." Nora nodded seriously, all while ignoring Dean's and Ginny's spluttering.

"So that's why you are so determined to get us together!" Dean eventually managed to get out.

"Maybe it has a little bit to do with it," Nora shrugged, unashamed – their group had bet on worse things with each other. "That and you two really would be good together and even I can tell that you have a crush on each other! And I may be willing to split my shares…" She offered, trailing off at the end and hoping that they would get the hint.

"Nora?" Dean asked, keeping his face completely serious so that even she could not read anything from it.

"…Yes?" she asked, half scared about what he would say.

"I have never been more proud of you than right now," he told her with a serious nod of his head before he broke out into a grin.

"Bastard," she told him ("And proud!") with a shake of her head, "You had me going then you prat. Now, are you two finally going to do what you have to?" she raised an eyebrow as they glanced at each other.

"Maybe," the two of them shrugged.

Nora just banged her head on the countertop and muttered, "Hopeless."

"Alright, that's enough talk about my little sister dating anyway," Ron butted in, fighting to keep an amused look off of his face, "Leave them alone, 'Nor."

"Oh please, Ron," she scoffed, they all knew that Dean was the only person that he thought good enough for Ginny, probably because the two of them had been friends for so many years. "You just don't want to lose the bet."

Ron brushed off her comment even as Hermione nodded along with her, he knew that they were right.

The five friends kept chatting for a while until the four in England eventually had to sign off so that they could get some sleep – Nora was quite happily eating her dinner by that point.

"If Aunt Andy contacts any of you then tell her I have been eating real food!" She called, waving her fork around, right as they were about to sign off.

With a sigh once the silence settled over her apartment once again, Nora stood up from the stool that she had sat herself on and, having picked up her plate and can of pop, headed outside to her square balcony and the comfy patio chair that she had placed out there. She may as well soak up the light while she still could.

She still had homework to figure out and washing up to do, but after talking with her friends from back home she felt too emotionally wrung out to focus on any of it.

Hogwarts was due to open once more in just a couple of months and she was not sure how she was feeling about that.

Could the wizarding world really be moving on already, after so little time? And if they were then that begged one question for Nora.

Why couldn't she?

* * *

 _ **So we see some of the HP gang once again and Nora struggling with her decision to run away from it all while everyone else seems to be able to move on. Oh if only she knew, the poor dear.**_

 _ **As always, reviews are so very welcome and I am accepting song requests for throughout the fic.**_

 _ **I want to try to get the next chapter up by late Sunday/early Monday, because I know that I will be travelling home all day Monday and then I'll be distracted by being home for the first time in months. Unfortunately I've reached the part where I am completely rewriting the rest of what I have written, apparently I have made too many slight changes so far for it to work, so I am not sure if I will get the full chapter done in time. We will see how it turns out though.**_

 _ **-Mel. x**_


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